Command and Conquer 3 Demo

Have any of you guys played it yet? I downloaded it last night and got a chance to play it today. I thought it was pretty solid, and definately fun, will probably buy it when the full version comes out. Not much else to say, just wanted to see if anyone else had played it yet and had thoughts.

I'd never played any of the others, mainly because the last time I was playing any RTS games I was busy owning people in Starcraft.

I've been playing Skirmish between me and 1 comp (about all you can do in the demo outside of 1 walkthrough level) and I can win on Easy with no problem at all. Once I bump it up to Medium I get killed quickly...

lol yeah the AI is really hard on even medium, I usualy play Online but when I skrimish I go me, hard, hard, medium, easy, Medium

I go China nuke general, the hards go GLA ( Global Liberation Army ), the easy goes USA airforce general, mediums go China and everyone is against everyone, It gets crazy if you play on a small map because you'll go to the middle and see abunch of explosion marks and blown up cars

I've been playing Skirmish between me and 1 comp (about all you can do in the demo outside of 1 walkthrough level) and I can win on Easy with no problem at all. Once I bump it up to Medium I get killed quickly...

Yeh I'm going to have to play with the handicap. I can survive quite a while on Medium now, but I can't win. Just got done playing some more, I like the game. Last skirmish I did I used every one of those special things on the left of the screen except Ion Cannon.

Tried the demo today, and was very much relieved that it was as good as it was. C&C was one of the first RTS' I played, and it still holds a special place in my heart. The second one was ok, but didn't recapture the magic as I'd hoped.
But C&C3 really did re-awaken those feelings. It's going to be some longs nights with this game!

About the game though, did anyone else find the campaign map too easy? Playing on Normal, there was no challenge at all. Just set up a decent base defence and there was no more challenge. (Of course, I enjoy being a turtle, but it should still be challenging!)

Haven't had time to try Skirmish on medium yet though. Easy was a breeze, some smart placement of snipers and a few tanks and nothing would hassle you. On easy, the AI really puts the question to my sig. I mean, it didn't even bother taking the Tiberium towers!

MrG - The campaign was a joke I thought, I sent in several small armies and got destroyed, but then all the sudden I had the Ion Cannon avaiable, and I unleashed that on them and it was all over.

Medium Skirmish is completely different on how fast and good the comp is (I'll probably be laughing at this statement in the future). But your comment about the AI reminds me of my game last night. I'll say it here because you guys will figure it out soon enough, but it is a bit of a spoiler. If you find which secondary resource corner the comp is going to, if you fight them there and take that corner, you can win easily. The real battle is trying to take that corner. But that is good because they don't have enough time/resources to continue to send armies at your real base. They don't even try to set up in the other corner, so the AI might be stupid

What good is it getting the tiberium spikes? I get them occationally, but I don't see how they help very much.

Yes, the prologue part of the campaign was extremely easy, but I just viewed that as an extended part of the tutorial.
But the campaign mission tp Alexandria should have been harder... I could see the AI trying to do smart things, but it looked like there was a few conditionals that they'd forgotten...

*******SLIGHT SPOILER********

They used an EMP strike to take out my defences, but didn't have any troops nearby to take advantage of it. The attack would come about a minute after the EMP had worn off.
Also, the enemy didn't concentrate the fire when they attacked you.
I had 5 grenade teams which was attacked by 3 light tanks/bikes/something, and I managed to kill all of them and only loosing one team, since they didn't concentrate their fire on one team at a time. Had they concentrated the fire, I would have been toast.

*******SLIGHT SPOILER********

Even playing on easy, things like that shouldn't happen...

I find Tiberium Spikes to be a nice supplement to bolster your economy. You don't get too much cash from them at once, but you can a steady stream of income which can help out when you're spending more than you currently have. And it alleviates the problem when your harvester is killed.

wow! i just completed all the demo stuffs in this game. You guys pretty much experienced the same things as I go through : D

The campaign was really easy. There's 2 way to beat em. build up your army and rush em or wait till you got full unlock and use ico nuke

The skirmish on normal was tough at first, but like SNGX1275 said, the secret is capturing a corner with the most resource xD and kill em while they respawn (dumb AI)

I lov this game.... LOTS better than boring Supreme commander. The cut scene got some Hollywood actor, hot hostess and I even saw a well known CNN news report in the game News. Brilliant! it felt like you're in the game while they report it to you live.

This game had keep me off my feet non stop, you gota think and act fast, a few wrong moves and you would be overpowered and nuke to death.

The air strike in this game impressed me as well, those AI sure know which to target to take out first (mostly my mammoth tank)

lil bonus i discover: you can use Kane army by clicking N x 3 while picking your army.

Played Medium with a 10% handicap. I lost the first game, but I screwed up my build strategy at the start and it hurt me. I replayed and won, but it was a struggle for a bit, may have to play there a few more times before eliminating the handicap.

Just finished playing the computer on Medium, and beat it without much of a problem. Ok, so he nuked me because I didn't bother to take out the temple in time (the AI placed it almost right next to me!), but since I spread out my buildings it didn't really hurt. (Lost a few airfields and the command center, but that was about it...)

But he did build a somewhat better base this time. Even it 2/3 of it was power generators and base defences, which my 12 Mamut Tanks took out without much problem...

That my computer isn't the worlds best shouldn't have too much to do with how the AI builds/attacks. The mis-timed attacks in the campaign could be due to lack of cpu time, but the build strategy etc., is a different matter. (or if it is dependent on the cpu, they've done a really stupid choice imo)

What is your strategy? I haven't played in a couple days, but I try to get a tech center asap and then those zone troopers or whatever they are that shoot blue beams, they then mix with a couple small tanks to defend my expansion. But that is pretty expensive (4000 for the tech center, 1000 for the men) and there is likely a better way to spend the resources.

Basicly I just build 3-4 regular troops and an engineer to take over one of the tiberium spikes, and defend it. Place base defences, remember both anti-vehicles and anti-personell and let the money roll in. A few medium tanks to take care of the pesky harrasment troops they send in the beginning should be enough.
Then comes command center, tech center and a lot of power, whilst at the same time I start placing a refinery at the top. Grenade troops are pretty good to support that, as they're pretty effective for their price.
As soon as you can, get out a few mammoth tanks, they'll deal with most of the stuff the enemy sends at you, whilst 5 well placed snipers (in the buildings) will make sure no ground troops makes it through.

If you want to use zone troopers, I'd get them just after the medium tanks are in place. Otherwise you might be too open for attacks. I usually get them around the time I place to second refinery, as I then have too much money and need some more defence up north.

After that I usually go for airfields with fire hawks (orca's are too weak), though they aren't really worth it. Just pump out enough mammoth tanks, and you're good to go. (just remember to get the rail gun upgrade pretty early, it makes a lot of difference)

I've been building a crane right off the start, first thing. Then a power plant and another refinery, definately need the extra income. Then an armory then command center and war thing. I get the buildings built pretty fast, I crank out 2 regular troops and rocket guys and put them in a building, to slow enemy advance. Then I'm building a CSV or whatever those things are that unpack into something you can build with, and I send him over to more tiberium along with zone troopers and small tanks. Then I get a refinery down asap and start putting in turrets, usually right before I can get turrets in they start sending planes shooting up my harvesters, they don't get shot up enough to die though. By about the 9 minute mark of gametime I'll have 5 refineries.

Considering I can't spend the money I get from 2 refineries fast enough (always get the "silos needed" message), you must be spending your money on something not too useful...
If you go with snipers in the buildings you're close to guarrantied that no troops will get through, and with a few mammoth you take out any vehicles the enemy sends at you.

Troops seems to be very limited in their uses on the small skirmish map (unless you want to rush), as they're too easy to take down.
I only build a few troops as cannon fodder... Mainly for the first attack on the tiberium spike, but they are also somewhat handy as fodder when your outlying bases are attacked.
The only trooper I actually use (aside from a few engineers) are snipers. They take out any other ground troop (especially when in a building) and they can call in arty if you decide to go that way..